Dust bath? help!

[coltsrox]

I hear allot of people say they gave their chickens dust baths and since i'm semi new to this i have NO idea what it means.whats a dust bath? and how do i/they do it?

 

[Mrs MIA]

It's not really a bath that you give your hens... it's a spot in their pen where they will fluff and "bathe" in the dust and dirt. A lot of people take advantage of their hen's natural inclination to fluff in the dirt and add DE to the area so they self-medicate for lice.

I just gave my girls a kiddie pool with sand/DE mixed in for them to dust in.

 

[coltsrox]

whats DE and where can i get it?

 

[AllChookUp]

coltsrox -

A question many, MANY of us have asked.

Check the FAQ, and scroll down until you see the "DE" question.

 

[JennsPeeps]

You don't need to bathe your chicks. Give them a dusty area in the yard and wait. Eventually they'll start rolling around in it & digging. It's pretty funny.

 

[DottieMarie]

I saw a couple of my 3 week old chicks laying in the grass on their sides and acting very weird. I started to think they were actually very sick but when I went to them they popped up and ran. There was no dirt but they had made the grass sparse in that area, do you think they were trying to dust themselves?

 

[Mrs MIA]

Most likely...

 

[JennsPeeps]

That's exactly what was happening! It's like my girls go into a weird trance.

 

[Eliz]

OMG! I was just about to post about this because my Blk Oprs just took their first dirt bath!!!

Sorry to bust in on your post! But will cockerals/roosters do this or just pullets/hens ?

 

[Mrs MIA]

EVerybody gets in on it...